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Thursday, January 29, 2015

Hi everyone, Logan from 1 Plus Armour here. Today I'm showing off my Legions of Chaos army list that I'll be taking to some upcoming events. I won't give away all of the goodies, but I'll include a few blurbs below each picture.

I do apologize for the less than spectacular image quality - lighting in my condo is not really conducive to photography.

First up, we have my Skullcrushers of Khorne. I'll be running these in a group of 4 with only a musician. Taking a champion feels like a liability primary because against a single wound model (like the unit champion who will accept my challenge) I'll only get 3 attacks before he likely dies, instead of 6 and a stomp! I also generally do not run a Standard Bearer simply because if the unit loses combat and flees it's nearly 100pts lost!

Currently I'm using a Exalted Hero of Khorne on a Juggernaut as my Battle Standard Bearer. This guy packs one hell of a punch and is very difficult to kill. With this said, expect to see him replaced by an even meaner variation in the near future!

My trusty Sorceror Lord of Tzeentch riding a Disk of Tzeentch. Mobile, extremely hard to kill, and a fantastic chaff/warmachine hunter with Lore of Tzeentch and a not-too-shabby statline of his own.

Don't leave home without them now that End Times are here... Two Skullcannons of Khorne. 135 points each for something that is on par with my normal Chariots (see below), but also has a ward save, can regenerate wounds, and is a freakin' cannon that can move and shoot!? You'd have to be nuts not to take two of these!

Big block of Warriors of Chaos with Halberds, Shields, and Mark of Nurgle. Very tough to kill and very good at killing things. Festus is also in there for some hero sniping with his potions, and to make the unit even stronger with Poisoned Attacks and Regeneration (5+)!

Two Chariots with Mark of Slaanesh. I'll be running a third one as well, however it is not pictured, unfortunately. These guys deliver devastating hits with D6+1 impact hits, and then 4 attacks at WS5 S5 I5. 4 wounds, a 3+ save, and the usual Chariot shenanigans make these guys hard to pass up. As a bonus, Mark of Slaanesh makes them nearly impossible to get rid of without some serious attack power coming their way.

Last but not least we cannot forget about my Warhounds, who are seen at the front of the army here. For 30 points per 5, these guys are great chaff. 14" march means they can disrupt movement and charges right from turn 1. If I had more models, I'd probably run at least 4 units of these guys.

I am by no means a fantastic artist like most of the rest of the guys on the team, but I've tried to keep an old school style going with the army. Brighter colours, Goblin Green bases with Static Grass and sand, and consistently using older models to match wherever possible. Unfortunately, it is getting quite difficult to find some of the older models (notably chariots), so if you have any to sell please let me know!

This is by no means my full collection. I also have many more Warriors, some monsters, characters... and some Daemon goodies still being built! More pictures will come as the army evolves.

For my next army showcase, I'll take you on a tour of my Vampire Counts (all 5000+ points of them!).

Monday, January 26, 2015

Dany here, like I mentioned in my previous post I got a massive Bretonnian army in a recent trade for some left-over 40k minis. Here are some pics to give you an idea of the crazy deal I got!

Here are the Knights

Here is about 20 pegasus knights and 2 trebuchets...

As you can see I have pretty much everything you could possibly want for a Bret army... except mounted yeomen. I'm thinking getting some proxy models from gamezone miniatures. Here they are:

Alright, here is my question for all our Bretonnian followers: any suggestions on how I should play and paint them? I intend on painting them all different colours and plan on playing mostly full of knight lances, of course with a couple bowmen units and 2 Trebs.

I'll keep you guys posted on what's going on with them and how I am doing with them on the battlefield.

Friday, January 23, 2015

In the little time that I have been back to the hobby (since Spring 2014), I've actually been to several tournaments, more than you would be expected. One thing that I've noticed is there seems to be a big question in the tournament scene, what gets comp'ed?

First, for those that are unfamiliar with the jargon, "comp" refers to altering or changing an existing ruleset from either a unit, character or complete army in an effort to balance the game. Our Canadian readers may be a bit unfamiliar with this since in my experience we tend to play more out of the book Warhammer. However, I do know that a number of systems exist (ETC, Swiss, etc) that aim to properly balance the power in the game, an effort that tries to minimize lopsided power between different army books.

So to comp or not to comp, what's the answer???

This is a tough question. I think it's pretty well known that some books lend towards more powerful builds than others, or may be considered more forgiving in-game if, for example, one were to make a tactical mistake. Does this mean that books, or units should be comp'ed though? In the tournaments I've been to, I haven't witnessed the top tables be dominated by any book in particular. In fact, I seen quite a range of books. Recently, at the Capital City Bloodbath in Ottawa, On, the top 10 spots were almost 10 different books! That's pretty astonishing. As well the difference in score between the top place and 10th was less than 30 points. Remember this was a six game tournament where 24 points could be won each game. With that in mind, it doesn't seem it such a big difference. Of course, others may have difference experiences. It is possible that we see more Warriors of Chaos or Dark Elf armies at the top, but does this matter now and will this continue to be the meta? Here are my views..

1) The meta is changing

Unless you've been living in a cave (looking at you dwarf and skaven players!) a LOT has been happening to Warhammer Fnatasy lately. Now I don't want to get into rumour mongering, but I will discuss what we know. 1) We know that combined lists are here and we may see more of them. What does this mean? Well Tomb Kings just kicked your ass, that's what. That's right, these combined lists served in some circumstances to mitigate weaknesses that plagued some books, like Tomb Kings. Thus, in a uncomp'ed environment where everything goes you may be the unfortunate person getting his ass handed to him by a TK player, and that's a good thing. The meta changed, an army is now more viable, there's more competition and overall I think more people are having fun. You could argue that Warriors of Chaos or Dark Elves didn't need any more help. Some complain that what little weaknesses these books had were essentially eliminated. I think we may need more time before we can definitely draw any conclusions, but in the Elves situation, IMO, adding more T3 Elves isn't a deal-breaker for me, and with Warriors well Skullcannons do misfire once in a while ;).

2) Who comps the comp?

I'll be completely honest here and say that I haven't played a lot of comp'ed Warhammer. From what little I played, though, someone who kicked my ass in uncomp'ed Warhammer.. still soundly kicked it in comp'ed warhammer (grrr). This is totally anecdotal of course. At the same time consider this. There are 15 Warhammer armies, with anywhere between 10-20 entries (possibly more) per book. I can't see anyway that this can be perfectly fine-tuned and balanced, while maintaining some elements of character in the armies. In my opinion a good Tomb Kings player will almost always beat a terrible Warriors' player. But we are talking tournaments so, presumably, they are all good players. My argument somewhat against comp is that well, how do we know the comp effectively comp'ed? As mentioned, the number of units and books makes it very difficult, near impossible, to ensure perfect balance. What makes us think we know any better when we say give Tomb King player's an extra 300 points? At the end day, how do we know we aren't just artificially changing the meta towards other powerful, seemingly indestructible builds? Recently, I played one mean Warriors Chariot list that was "ETC legal" and I would have been afraid of it in an uncomp'ed environment, let alone an environment where I'm limited to 2 scar vets! All in all, what I'm saying is that I'm not convinved comp'ed does what it says on the tin, and I believe it just creates a different tournament meta. Is it still fun? Probably yes. Is it completely balance? I don't think so.

3) Will it matter?

It seems that 9th Edition warhammer may be around the corner. When exactly? Who knows. As mentioned, with combined lists popping up and now the hint of formations, will we even be able to comp the environment for some time, especially when 9th ed drops? We won't know our asses from our heads so I doubt it for a very long time. If new releases will focus on one-offs frequently, how will a comp pack be maintained and agreed upon by some body consistently? I can see now, those Swedish comp and ETC fans scratching their heads. Overall, we may be entering a new environment of Warhammer where it's everything goes, and it's gory!

Overall, I'm not a huge proponent of comp, but I don't dislike it either. I'll play whatever Warhammer you throw at me. I just question the effectiveness of comp, and sustainability. For example, our comp pack is going to be pretty easy to maintain when it's bring everything! Also, haters are gonna hate (damn haters). When I got back into Warhammer I saw a Crocodile looking guy riding a T-Rex monster-thing (pure love) and immediately found my army. Most of you may be like that. Lizardmen are often considered a middle-tier army. I've found they are tactically challenging, and yes it is difficult to steamroll people. Nevertheless, I love the army. I love the fluff, aesthetic, everything and I wouldn't change it and I think a lot of you are like that with your armies. I know Andrew from 1PA is everything nurgle, all the time. Not because he thinks they are over-powered, that's what he likes and packs up for every tournament as well. I think it makes it more meaningful to win or lose with an army you love, versus destroying everyone with an army you don't care for. It makes better story-telling. The Tomb Kings players I've met love the Egyptian themed undead, with their living statues and kick-ass mummies. Is it frustrating to lose often? Sure. What's worse though, in my opinion, is commanding an army that you could care less about what happens to them. Of course, maybe you're not like me and want to win non-stop... then what's stopping you from ordering 6 boxes of dark riders right now?

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! The sky is falling!" is what many Fantasy players are saying, myself included at some points, but as usual as more information emerges this is starting to go away. Here's a quick breakdown (a TL;DR, if you will) of the current Fantasy ramblings, as well some thoughts about the information that has been confirmed.

Round bases

That nasty picture with the Screaming Bell and Plague Furnace on round bases turned out to be a legit photo and was in WD50. Nothing was said about it, at all. Fantasy releases continue to be exclusively on square bases, and there's no way that GW editors didn't catch the round base thing with all of the hubbub on the internet... WD51 didn't mention anything either.

Is this coming in the future? Maybe, but it seems seriously unlikely that it will be in 9th ed. Even the rumours from "reliable sources" don't seem to be consistent or clear.

Factions

End Times seems to be strongly leading in this direction, so I would expect that we may indeed see this, potentially with future pruning of armies (likely not at the launch of 9th though).

Honestly, I don't think this is a bad thing. End Times has been an absolute blast, and has been a nice shift in the meta with the new lists. Tomb Kings are finally viable in tournament play, Chaos (of all sorts) got some new toys, Elves... well at least they're a different kind of ridiculously good now.

From a business standpoint, Factions make perfect sense. The introduction of Allies in 40k in 6th edition was a genius move from a business perspective, because now the guy that wanted to start a second army, but couldn't afford a full list, could still buy a few models and use them. Since End Times started I know that I have dropped a few hundred dollars on armies I don't even play simply because I can now field their stuff. Where is this headed? I'll, of course, now be fleshing out a Daemons army as well, because I have the start of one.

Did Allies in 40k have some huge issues? Yes. Was it good for the game? Debatable, but I'd say yes. Was it good for the overall hobby and GW? Without a doubt, absolutely yes.

Armies being cut

Rumour mill is stating that Lizardmen in particular are being cut from Fantasy. As I noted above, maybe this will come down the road, but I seriously doubt that it will be the case for 9th. If anything, they'll likely get the Brettonian treatment of being ignored rather than removed. With that said, they also got a Formation... so they aren't totally left out to dry (eww... Lizard jerky).

And now on to what has been confirmed....

Formations

These are something that have been popping up in 40k as well. They are confirmed for Fantasy, though the images so far are tough to read, but basically they allow specific army compositions that have the potential to ignore things like the normal Core requirement. Expect to see things like all Slayer Dwarf armies, and the like.

At first, the reaction is likely "Crap, this stuff is going to be severely broken!". Maybe, but more importantly it will shift the metagame which is a good thing. 8th edition has been around for quite a while, and things haven't changed much with the exception of new army books coming out and shaking things up (Wood Elves, anyone?).

In 40k Formations have brought some really crazy stuff like the Adamantium Lance formation for Imperial Knights. People scream that this was broken as hell... but then you look at tournament results and see that Eldar (plain, vanilla, Eldar) are still winning consistently. A lot of stuff will seem crazy at first, and then people will shift their lists to deal with it.

End of an era for the current meta? Yes. End of an era for the game? Hell no.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Hey hey Swords and Magic fans!

The team just want to clarify something for the upcoming Swords and Magic tournament. The tournament will not have an army list pre-submission deadline. We will go over the lists the day off. Since most of the attendees are seasoned vets, we don't anticipate any problems.

Monday, January 19, 2015

I'm Dany new member of 1PA. Just want to introduce myself. My first language is French but very fluent in English. So for our French community expect some French content in the future. I'm an Undead legion player mainly, but just received a gift of 5000 pts of Brets.

Right now, what I have on the painting table is the new Morghast. I just love this model. They are also amazing on the tabletop. Here is one completed. Let me know what you guys think! I have 3 more to do before ND Open in March!'

I also recently converted a chariot for my undead legion so it can look more vampire instead of TK. I used a beastmen chariot, dire wolves and some mantic skeletons. Let me know what you think about my conversion.

I'm really busy with life atm but try to paint as much as possible. I will keep you posted with some update on my UL and my Brets in the near futur. Thanks!

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Well we have been crazy busy! As you can see we are starting a new website to deliver top-notch fantasy content, we are trying to keep up with video production (our crazy publish schedule!), but most importantly also trying to get some hobby in! I find that when life gets busy our hobby suffers for it, so I've been trying to get a couple hours here and there in to hopefully get some projects done for some looming deadlines.. here they are!

Lizardmen

If you watch our channel you know I'm a Lizardmen fanatic, love everything about them. Me and a couple of the guys have the ND open (link here) coming up in March and so I'm trying to get my new Life-Slann list ready. I've added some new models to the roster including Ripperdactyls. Here's where I'm at:

I wasn't crazy about them at first, but I'm warming up to this scheme. I may change up the patterning on the wings. On the table, these guys have had mixed results. They haven't done what I thought they would be doing, but I find my opponents dedicate a lot of resources to them. In the end, if they tie up organ guns, cannons and whatever else, maybe that's a solid buy for the 120 points they are.

Dwarfs
As you may or may not know, our good friends at the Canhammer podcast are running an ETC-style team tournament in April (link here). 1PA definitely wants to represent! Logan will be our playing captain and so far the team is Logan, Andrew, Dany and myself. We decided we need to run a 10-10 list and dwarfs were the best choice and so now I need to prepare some dwarfs.

This is going to be a tight deadline, I have the whole army to paint, and I'm still waiting on some of the models to arrive. I've done a test run on colour scheme for the ironbreakers and I'm happy how they turned out. Let me know what you think!

Thanks for checking out our new site and for your patience as we endeavour to continually deliver quality warhammer content to you! Feel free to leave us comments, suggestions or whatever!

Hey everyone!The scenarios are now up on the site! We will have a link shortly for you to download them, but for now they will give you a good idea of the day and perhaps influence what you may bring to Swords and Magic! Enjoy!- Nick

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Hi Gals and Guys!Welcome to 1 Plus Amour's new (and largely under construction) tournament page! We wanted to provide a one-stop shop for all Swords & Magic tournament news and resources so here it is! Have a look around and please be patient with us as we endeavor to get the site to full spec.Cheers,Nick